Record or index card.



rah-834,294., 4 PATENTEDOCTfbO, 1906.

0. W. GREMPLE. I

RECORD 0R INDBX'OARD. APPLICATION FILED APR. 10. 1904.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

RECORD OR INDEX CARD.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. '30, 1906.

Application filed April 16, 1904. Serial No. 203,463.

To all whom it may concern.-

I Be it known that I, CHARLES WILLIAM GREMPLE, a citizen of the United States, residing in New York city, State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Record or Index Cards, of which the following is a specification.

It has long been common to employ, in

connection with books in libraries and names and ages in life insurance'and under various other conditions, cards serving as indexes adapted to be grouped together andseparatedwith ease.

My invention relates to an improvementin the cards whereby they can be fingered or handled in an easier and more rapid manner. It is the common experience among users of these records or card-indexes that in fingering the cards to arrive at the desired one it is often necessary to take out three or four which stick together and slide them apart with the moistened thumb to obtain the desired one. Such sticking together is largely due to the contact of the surfaces, and the consequent lack of air between the cards.

I have discovered that it is possible and practicable to hold the cards a little apart by embossing the upper and lower edges and arranging the embossing so that the distortions of adjacent cards do not harmonize and that the main portion of each face may remain plane, so as to be written or printed on as usual. The most importance attaches to embossing the upper edges. The purpose of embossing the lower edges is mainly to keep the cards parallel.

The following is a description of what I consider the best means of carrying out the invention.

The-accompanying drawings form a part of this specification.

Figure 1 is a face view of a complete card constituting one of a series. Figs. 2, 3, and 4 are face views of portions of other cards of said series. Fig. 5 is a vertical section on line of Fig. 1 of a group of cards composed of the four cards of Figs. 1 to 4. Figs. 6 and 7 are respectively a face view and a horizontal section on line 7 7 of a group of six cards of another series. They exhibit a modified form of the invention.

Referring to Figs. 1 to 5, A B, &c., .are the bodies of the cards standing on their edges in a set, and A B, &c., are devices embossed differently in each card by any means suit able, as compressing between dies, which willsink or depress 'a small portion a b, &c., Fig. 5, of one face and induce the required protuberance A B, &c., Figs. 1 to 4, on the opposite face, as shown, 1 to 5, inclusive, In these figures these protuberances are near the mid-length and close to the top and bottom edges. The main surface of the card is plane, as usual. The cards are peculiar in the fact that the main portion of each can be printed and written upon as usual and that the main portion of the entire card is held an appreciable distance from the ,card next adjacent and is so held very strongly at and near the mid-length of the upper edge, that being the place where the cards are naturally acted on by the fingers in manipulating them in sets to select and remove or exchange on or more.

The invention does not appreciably increase the cost of manufacture.

- I attach importance to the embossing near the center of the upper ed e because it insures that the cards will e thereby held apart along the portion which is ordinarily manipulated in selecting and removing the card, while leaving a lar e proportion of the card unaffected .to be ful y utilized, as usual, and I attach importance to the corresponding embossing of the lower edge because it causes the cards to be held in parallel planes. I also attach importance to the formation of the separating devices by embossing the cards as opposed to a temporary bending over of portions of the same with or without slitting their edges. Embossing can be effected cheaply by machinery even before the cards are sold. It need not either disfigure the cards or increase their liability to become torn in use. The embossing is best near to, but not quite at, the edges of the cards, so as to leave outside mar ins in the planes of the cards in order to facI Itate handling and also to decrease liability to injury in use.

The form of embossment in Figs. 1 to 5 is important for the reason that it allows a Wide range of variety with the required discordance and does not reduce but by the smallest possible increment the writing-surface of the card. It will be seen that the devices A B, &c., are long and narrow and identical in form, so that they may be roduced by the same dies with the cards di erently presented thereto in the process of embossing. Thus the impressions are inharmonious or out of register only because the long way of the several protuberances and of the adjacent recesses do not coincide with each other. Each successive protuberance A B, &c., is inclined more or less than the hollow or recess a b, &c., in the next adjacent card, and some are inclined in opposite directions.

In Figs. 6 and 7 the protuberances A B &e., with their corresponding recesses a 6 &c., are of a spherical character, and the required discordance is secured by placing them in different positions on their respective cards A B &c. Thus the protuberances B of card B are opposite plane portions of the card A and hence they do not enter the recesses (L of this latter when the cards are assembled. Similar remarks apply to the other cards C D &c.

Modifications may be made Without departing from the principle or sacrificing the advantages of the invention.

I can effect the printing and writing before the embossing; but it is equally easy to do it afterward, and it is one of the advantages of my invention that the embossing may be done in quantities at the mill and the printing and writing added at any time afterward. Parts of the invention can be used without the whole. I can use dies, making the embossed devices in any form depending upon the location out of register to the right or left to keep the main plane of the cards apart.

I claim as my invention 1. In a card-index a series of record-cards embossed diversely near the center of the upper edges, substantially as herein specified.

2. In a card-index a series of record-cards embossed near the center of their upper edges and also embossed to about equal thickness near their lower edge with the other portions of their faces mainly plane, adapted to serve substantially as herein described.

3. In a card-index a series of record-cards having their faces mainly plane, embossed at the mid-length of the upper edge with devices out of round and made discordant by being inclined in different directions all substantially as herein described.

4. In a card-index, a series of record-cards embossed diversely near their upper edges with the other portions of their faces mainly plane and also with continuous margins outside such embossings in the planes of the respeotive cards, substantially as described.

In testimony that I claim the invention above set forth I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

CHARLES WILLIAM GREMPLE.

Witnesses:

LOUIS F. BRAUN, HELEN A. HANOVER. 

